I recently replied to a demand management question that I also had for ages. Thought it might be a suitable blog for ITBM newcomers who are also familiar with SN's previously stand-alone agile paradigms.
"WHY DON'T DEMANDS OUTPUT STORIES?"
There are 4 potential outputs from an OOB demand, based on the Category and Type
Strategic + Enhancement creates an Enhancement record
Strategic + Project creates a Project record
Operational + Change creates a Change Request record
Operational + Defect creates a Defect record.
I see the question a lot, and I used to ask it myself: why not output to stories from demand?
1) There is no assumption of Agile adoption
Stories, sprints, releases operate very specifically. By outputting demands to Enhancements / Defects, SN allows customers to work outside the Agile framework until culture & process for the adoption. But even without agile adoption, you still need an output to represent non-project build &/or fix activity.
2) Demand Managers aren't Product Owners
Stories are groomed in ways Demands aren't. Story description, acceptance criteria, and sizing, are generally handled by product owners and the dev teams involved. This means ANY output from demand that goes through non-project agile teams are very likely going to endure heavy edits. Enhancement/Defect layer provides an exit point for demand, without polluting agile team work streams.
3) Demand Assumes Single Output, Agile Does Not
Many times what leaves Demand and becomes an Enhancement/Defect will be composed of multiple components of work. There's simply no telling how many stories will result from an approved demand. The Enhancement / Defect layer allows you to tie all story based Dev efforts to link back to a single exit from Demand.
